For Immediate Release
September 3, 2003

Global Message

From remarks by Ambassador Paul Bremer, Presidential Envoy to Iraq, 9/2/03

"Once again, as twice before in the past month, the terrorists have taken innocent lives. Once again, the terrorists have shown they will stop at nothing in the pursuit of their aims, but they shall be stopped. We will stop them. We shall combat them and we shall overcome them." --Ambassador Bremer, 9/2/03

The terrorist bombing that killed and injured innocents in Najaf on Friday will not derail Iraq's forward movement to democratic government.

Along with millions of Iraqis, we especially mourn the murder of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Bakir al-Hakim.

We have seen the influx of both foreign fighters and foreign terrorists in the last months. It shows that Iraq is one of the battlefields on the worldwide war against terrorism.

On Monday, the Governing Council took another step on the path to Iraqi sovereignty. Its members appointed new ministers to serve the Governing Council. The day-to-day business of government is in their hands.

These ministers will be involved in the final stages of the 2004 budget preparations, and they will be responsible for operating the ministries according to those budgets.

The path ahead to full Iraqi sovereignty is clear.
-First, there will be a constitutional convention or similar mechanism to write a new, permanent constitution for Iraq. -Second, that constitution will be submitted to the Iraqi people for approval in a referendum. -Third, Iraqis will then hold elections, which will produce a fully sovereign Iraqi government.